A Letter from Ann Lehman

George restored Ol' Yeller  with his hands and Dave Gibbs money in 1978. Dave met a man in a bar in Fresno around the end of 1977. This man said he had the remains of the car in his backyard. Dave said "show me". There it was in pieces, rusted pieces. I hear it was run into a tree at a race in Cotati and somehow wound up with this guy.

Well, Dave bought the car and brought it back to Santa Barbara. Meanwhile, my husband, George had had a heart attack at the age of 42. He was a long time racer in SCCA. Either in ASR or his B Production Corvette. Dave came to the hospital with the Monterey Vintage Race entry in his hand and said "George, I need you to build this car for me by August"  Well that is how it all started.

My husband, George, my son Scott Vilander, A guy named Mike Shapiro (body man), Richard Carlson, and Dave's son Blake started to work on the remains. I have pictures of all this if anyone is interested.

Dave supplied the building and the money. George got out of the Hospital, recouped himself and started to work on the car. During the day he was a design engineer at Raytheon Corp in Goleta. We were very pressed for time so it was impossible to build the 401 naihead Buick for the Vintage Race, so George built a small block Chevy to make in time for the race. We barely made it, in fact the only part that was not available was the grill. Well, I found an abandoned Safeway grocery cart in front of the shop. George cut out the bottom of the cart, took off the S logo, painted it black and voila! a grill. I see it is still on there Yeah!

After a couple of years, Steven Earle pressed George to build the 401 and put on the 6 Stromberg carbs. So he did it. George could do anything mechanical, he was a very clever man.

He talked to Max many times and visited him at Hollywood Sports Cars or whereever he was at that time. Everything I have said here is true and can be verified by Steven Earle or my son Scott Vilander (he has a lot of the old pictures)

It really pleases me to see the old car getting the admiration that it deserves. Good for the Dr.

It also has always bothered me that my husbands hard work has never been acknowledged in any article that I have ever read. If it was not for George Lehman there would be no Ol Yeller II. He was a very quiet. unassuming man that never required a spotlight to feel good about himself. He died in 1995 at the age of 59, and I still miss him and his racing career very much. Thanks for listening to an old lady ramble on.

Sincerely,

Ann Lehman

(Webmasters note: Received on 5/22/2008 via email and posted with her permission)